Of the many programs that have engaged our attention, interest and concern at this 45th General Assembly, none is more fundamental to the existence, vitality and future of the Reform Movement than the newly proclaimed and freshly inaugurated Development Fund for American Judaism.
The Development Fund will bear the responsibility and task of mobilizing a sum of unprecedented character in the history of American Reform Judaism, a total of $15,000,000 with which to underwrite the long delayed and now acutely overdue expansion and improvement of the physical resources of the Union of American Hebrew Congregations and the Hebrew Union College-Jewish Institute of Religion.
The Development Fund must succeed, for on its outcome is hinged the viability of our Union of Congregations and of our rabbinical seminary. Unless they are assured of the greatly augmented facilities with which to continue to foster the enrichment and deepening of religious life in our continuously expanding family of congregations—grown from 300 at the end of World War II to nearly twice that number at the present time—the Union and the College-Institute shall break down under the cumulative weight of their tasks and responsibilities.
At the same time, we are deeply mindful that the Development fund will—for a time—be conducted concurrently with the regular Combined Campaign for American Reform Judaism, which is the Reform Jewish Community's traditional vehicle for assuring the annual budgetary requirements of the UAHC and the HUC-JIR. Nothing must take place that will diminish or endanger either of these efforts.
Therefore be it resolved, that we pledge our fullest support to the Development Fund and call upon all in the Reform Movement to contribute to it in sacrificial degree. We accept the proposition, moreover, that a gift to the Development Fund shall not be deductible in any part for crediting to the Combined Campaign, and that a gift to the Combined Campaign may not be fragmented in any part for assignment to the Development Fund.
Be it further resolved, that our heartfelt gratitude be extended to the consecrated men and women who have accepted responsibility for guiding the Development Fund to success. We note especially, and greet, the action of the Honorable Herbert H. Lehman in accepting the Development Fund's Honorary Chairmanship; and we extend our most sincere wishes to Max L. Koeppel, a member of the Board of Trustees of the UAHC and Chairman of the Union's Building Committee, in his towering responsibility as the Development Fund's Chairman.